ABOUT THIS BOOK

Originally composed in Latin by Gilbertus Anglicus (Gilbert the Englishman), his Compendium of Medicine was a primary text of the medical revolution in thirteenth-century Europe. Composed mainly of medicinal recipes, it offered advice on diagnosis, medicinal preparation, and prognosis. In the fifteenth-century it was translated into Middle English to accommodate a widening audience for learning and medical “secrets.”
Faye Marie Getz provides a critical edition of the Middle English text, with an extensive introduction to the learned, practical, and social components of medieval medicine and a summary of the text in modern English. Getz also draws on both the Latin and Middle English texts to create an extensive glossary of little-known Middle English pharmaceutical and medical vocabulary.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Faye Marie Getz lives in Norfolk, England, and has honorary academic appointments in the history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. She appeared as a medieval physician in Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives, an Emmy-nominated BBC documentary.

REVIEWS

“A book that will continue to be consulted for a very long time and will be of as much interest to medical historians as to scholars of Middle English.”—Peter Murray Jones, Bulletin of the History of Medicine

“[This] edition places in our hands a medical book that looks two ways: toward the massive Latin compilation of Gilbertus, whose rhetoric of medicine comes through surprisingly unfiltered, and toward the ‘practices’ of medicine mediated in English during the fifteenth-century.”—Lea Olsan, Studies in the Age of Chaucer

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

I. Historical Background

A. Theoretical Justifications for Pharmaceutical Practices

B. Pharmacy, Medicine, and Commerce

II. The Practice of Medicine in the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus

A. Anatomy

B. Physiology

C. Diagnosis

D. Therapeutics

E. Preparation of Medicines

III. The Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus and Its Relationship to Middle English Recipe Collections

IV. The Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus as a Translation

A. The Mechanics of Translation: A Comparison of the Middle English and Latin Texts

B. Neologism in the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus

C. The Lexicon of the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus

D. Modification of the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus by the Copyist of Wellcome MS 537: The Removal of References to Diseases of Women and Children

V. Gilbertus Anglicus and the Latin Text

A. The Writings of Gilbertus Anglicus

B. Gilbertus Anglicus and His Reputation

VI. Description of the Manuscript

A. Binding

B. Physical Description

C. Contents of the Manuscript

D. Watermarks

E. Dating and Script

F. Provenance

G. Scribal Correction and Glossing

H. Dialect and Orthographical Peculiarities

VII. Editing the Manuscript

A. Editorial Procedures

B. Transcription Procedures

VIII. The Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus as Part of a Compendium

A. MSS Containing the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus with the Incipit A mon pat woll help men in her sykeness

B. MSS Containing the Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus with the Incipit Scotomy is such

IX. Conclusion

The Middle English Gilbertus Anglicus from Wellcome MS 537

Chapter I: The Head

1. Headache

2. Other Sicknesses of the Head

3. Frenzy

4. Mania

5. Lethargy

6. Epilepsy

7. Apoplexy

Chapter II: The Eyes

1. Ache of the Eyes

2. Ophthalmia

3. Web, Cloth, and Nail

4. Red Eyes

5. Watery Eyes

6. Canker of the Eye

7. Injury to the Cornea

8. Feebleness of the Sight

Chapter III: The Eyelids and Lashes

Chapter IV: The Ears

1. Earache

2. Apostem of the Ear

3. Flowing of Blood at the Ears

4. Worms in the Ears

5. Ringing in the Ears

6. Deafness

Chapter V: The Nose

1. The Pose

2. Stinking of the Nostrils

3. Nosebleed

4. Gutta Rosacea

Chapter VI: The Mouth

1. Cracked Lips

2. Stinking of the Mouth

Chapter VII: The Teeth

1. Toothache

2. Worms in the Teeth

3. Rotting of the Teeth

Chapter VIII: The Tongue and Throat

1. The Tongue

2. Quinsy

Chapter IX: The Upper Chest

1. Hoarseness

2. Stricture of the Breast

3. The Cough

Chapter X: The Lungs

1. Apostem

2. Spitting of Blood

3. Spitting of Gleet

4. Phthisis

5. Difficulty in Breathing

Chapter XI: The Heart

1. The Cardiacle

2. Syncope

Chapter XII: The Stomach

1. Dlfficulty in Swallowing

2. Defective Appetite

3. Lack of Thirst

4. Excessive Thirst

5. Burping

6. Hiccups

7. Vomiting

8. To Stop Vomiting

9. The Mouth of the Stomach

10. Stomach Ache

11. Apostem of the Stomach

12. Colic of the Stomach

Chapter XIII: The Guts

1. Dysentery

2. Bloody Flux

3. Diarrhea

4. Lienteria

5. Colic

6. Worms in the Guts

7. Tenesmus

8. Prolapsed Rectum

Chapter XIV: The Liver

1. Distemper of the Liver

2. Stopping of the Liver

3. Apostem of the Liver

Chapter XV: The Spleen

Chapter XVI: The Kidneys

1. Ache of the Kidneys

2. Apostem of the Kidneys

3. Stones in the Kidneys and Bladder

Chapter XVII: The Bladder

1. Strangury

2. Pissing of Blood

3. Diabetes

4. Urinary Incontinence

5. The Siphac

Chapter XVIII: The Penis

1. Satyriasis

2. Gonorrhea

3. Pimples and Apostems

4. Swelling of the Scrotum

Chapter XIX: Hemorrhoids

Commentary

Glossary

Alphabetical List of Plants by Genus

Bibliography

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